Oakland to vote on strong mayor / 6-year experiment could be made permanent

Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PST, Friday, February 20, 2004

Mayor Jerry Brown's name is not on the Oakland ballot next month but his political future hinges on whether voters decide to keep his strong-mayor city rule.

If a simple majority of voters approves Measure P on March 2, then Oakland would permanently adopt the form of government that voters approved overwhelmingly six years ago, in which the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.

But, if voters reject the measure, they would turn the clock back to 1998 -- when Brown was first elected -- and return Oakland to the city manager form of government in which the mayor is merely the symbolic leader of the City Council.

While Brown's second term doesn't expire until the end of 2006, the strong-mayor Measure X, which he wrote, expires at the end of this year unless approved by voters.

Voters seem to have mixed feelings about the current initiative, which the City Council placed on the ballot with Brown's backing."I hate to see Jerry Brown without that power for two years," said Bill Simmons, 58, a 30- year resident of Oakland's Dimond neighborhood. "But I don't know if the person who comes next will be up for the job. I don't know if I want to give his successor that much power."

While Simmons and many voters are undecided, others oppose the measure for similar reasons.

"Jerry Brown did a lot for this city," said Thomas Hutchins, 46, as he walked his dog near MacArthur Boulevard and Fruitvale Avenue. "But after he's gone we're probably going to go back to the same old stuff. I say give the next mayor a short leash."

Measure P supporters think the strong-mayor system is just a better form of government.

"You look at what Jerry Brown has accomplished in terms of getting new housing started downtown and he had to cut through some intense bureaucratic obstacles," said Zachary Wasserman, head of the committee backing Measure P. "He couldn't have done that if all he had was a bully pulpit."

Brown, who is considering running for state attorney general in 2006, said voters should look beyond his administration and "approve a more accountable, democratic form of government."

"The key point is to have a chief executive that is answerable to the people," Brown said. "Do people want to elect the chief executive or have a contract employee picked behind closed doors by the city council?"

In 1998, voters overwhelmingly approved Measure X, which Brown wrote, shifting Oakland's chief executive role from the city manager to the mayor. Brown tried to make the strong-mayor system permanent in the November 2002 election. But that effort failed by 375 votes, less than 1 percent.

Measure P, devised by a citizens committee appointed by Brown and the council, would strengthen the mayor's job description by downgrading the city manager's title to city administrator and giving the mayor approval over the hiring and firing of department heads.

It would also require the mayor to make several public appearances each year at the City Council. Many people complained that since 1998 they can no longer address the mayor directly with grievances at City Council meetings.

"Strong mayor is not necessarily right for every city. But for a city as large and diverse as Oakland, strong mayor is the best for of government," said Wasserman, who chaired the charter review committee. "In the strong mayor form of government, you discourage hiding behind the bureaucracy. You discourage hiding behind the council."

But Councilman Larry Reid said the old city manager system is better and removed politics from the day-to-day operation of the city.

"It worked well," Reid said. "I didn't see a problem with it. I think we should return to a system where the city manager is the chief executive and the mayor is on the council."

Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who plans to run to succeed Brown in 2006, agrees that the experiment in the strong-mayor for m of government is a success that transcends Brown's tenure.

"I think voters prefer to have their top city official more accountable, " he said. "They want someone to take responsibility."

If Measure P fails, then De La Fuente said the council would place the original Measure X back on the ballot in November.